# Was there once a female pope? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 24, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-once-a-female-pope/568829 "2011-01-24T20:23:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chidino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@chidino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chidino)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-once-a-female-pope/568829/1 "2011-01-24T20:23:21Z")
Cecil, been reading and relying on you for far too many years (for both of us). Just a quick question, and sorry to drag this chestnut out of the SD vault – but I was always taught by the various monks/nuns/priests I’ve been educated by (so well, I’m now “fallen away”…) that any male Catholic can be pope, and that being a priest – and thus subject to celibacy rules – doesn’t apply to the Papacy. True? Garbage? Frightening indeed when you are more reliable than ‘Holy Mother Church’. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-once-a-female-pope/568829/2 "2011-01-24T20:27:58Z")
Two relevant SD items: [Was there once a female pope?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/432/was-there-once-a-female-pope) and [How does one become Pope?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1547/how-does-one-become-pope) The second of these gives the first step to becoming Pope as being entering the priesthood. I don’t think there’s ever been a Pope who wasn’t a priest first. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-once-a-female-pope/568829/3 "2011-01-24T20:41:38Z")
In principle, the College of Cardinals could in fact choose any male Catholic. If they did so, though, that man would be immediately ordained a deacon, priest, and bishop, and then be named Pope. There are a few rare exceptions to the rule against married priests; presumably, if we’re in such a wild hypothetical that the cardinals all feel inspired to pick a previously-lay man, they would also waive the celibacy requirement. Of course, this has never actually happened with the papacy, but IIRC, St. Augustin was a layman at the time he was chosen to be bishop of Hippo, and went through a similar whirlwind ordination process. It’s also worth noting that Augustin was previously married, but the marriage was to a non-Christian, and considered voided by the Church. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-once-a-female-pope/568829/4 "2011-01-24T22:08:09Z")
Ummm… No. Augustine had been a priest for four years, and had never been married (though he had had a couple of mistresses). But (and more to the point) St. Fabian is said to have been a layman before his election, and Pelagius I (no connection with the Pelagius for whom the Pelagian heresy is named) was only a deacon. However, ordination _per saltum_ (“by leaping”), that is, directly becoming a priest without being a deacon, or becoming a bishop without being a priest, is now considered valid, but unacceptable. Of course, since the pope is, by definition, the bishop of Rome, there is no real problem with a non-bishop being chosen, except on the practical ground that a non-bishop would not have the administrative experience a pope really should have. The celibacy thing is understood by the Roman Catholic Church to be a simple human rule, not something commanded by God. Looking at the level of alcoholism among the wives of Protestant clergy, one can see the point.